


World of One for Two

by Coffin Liqueur (HP_Lovecats)



Category: Clock Tower Series (Video Games)
Genre: Character Study, During Canon, Gen, Implied/Referenced Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Death, Mild Angst, Mild Language, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26551357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HP_Lovecats/pseuds/Coffin%20Liqueur
Summary: Bates understands things simply.Curses, wrongs, and rights? Not so simple.How he defines himself?Far more so.
Relationships: Alyssa Hale & Bates
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5
Collections: Fandom Giftbox 2020





	World of One for Two

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Piinutbutter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piinutbutter/gifts).



_Don’t be afraid, Alyssa._

He says that to her for _so, so far_ from the first time.

(Why doesn’t she want him, her brother…?)

He says it as he merges into the physical world, his mind overcrowding hers to use the only body he can use at all, let alone to protect her. Hers, yes, but for all intents and purposes, _theirs_.

(First of anything he can remember.

_I need to fight for Alyssa!_

Fists are swung, the rush and heat from what is the sensation of having blood, and having it sped by the thrill of a fight that one knows that they’re winning.

He remembers nothing about those boys, but how _dare_ they have been trying to upset _his sister?_ )

It’s his _job_ to take over, at times like these.

(Does Alyssa even know that they were _both_ unwanted…?

...Nah. She doesn’t.

And it’s better that way.

Let her have her fun being wanted. Dad Hale having picked her because she’d still been breathing, and her getting to be treated as if she belonged there because she’d still been breathing. All of that was the point, here - better Alyssa didn’t _have_ to know instead of just being happy as she damn well _could_ be.)

Protect Alyssa.

He knows he knows what’s best for her.

_(and it’s better that way)_

He knows too much. She knows… 

...less than enough.

He doesn’t grudge her for it.

But does think it balances out.

(...It’s not fair.

She wears that _idiotic amulet_ to keep away someone who’s _just trying to help_ , all _because_ , he _knows_ , she _isn’t allowed to know as much_ \- _I’m your_ **_brother_ ** _, Alyssa, for fuck’s sake…!_ )

...The blatant irony, too, in how the reason he knows too much is that he’s not supposed to be real.

He’s not really who he’s supposed to be.

 ~~Dad~~ Hale sure lets _him_ know shit. Doesn’t treat him like someone who could’ve been his son - gives him that kind of talk like _I know why you’re here, demon._ (He’s not a _goddamn demon._ ) _You’re not getting to my little girl._

He’s a curse.

What does that even mean?

( ~~Dad~~ Hale knows the truth, and he can't tell her, and he can’t even make ~~Dad~~ _Hale_ tell her because she’d really never take that amulet off if he died, or had an _accident_. 

That’d be all the final proof you’d need that your other-you _does not belong_ , right, Alyssa...?)

...The hell at how wondering what _that_ even means is how he knows what _anything_ means.

There’s good and bad. He’s bad.

(Alyssa was born just like him. Why does she get to be good?)

It’s bad to curse. It’s bad to be rude. It’s bad to be selfish. It’s bad to fight. It’s bad to kill.

...If he was a curse - _bad_ \- ...no wonder why he was so good in a fight.

No wonder he isn’t _scared_ of shit. At worst, anything bad or cruel or dangerous is only as bad as him, and therefore easy to understand. Uncomplicated.

...He gets why he’s _bad_.

What he’s never gotten is why that’s _wrong_.

(“ _You should never have been born_ ”, comes a distant voice.

“Should”.

...The point is that he _was_.)

He doesn’t get why he’s _wrong_.

He doesn’t care.

That’s wrong, too, eh?

It’s wrong to oppose good, which is the opposite of bad.

A good person is quiet. Good is polite, and generous, and doesn’t hurt, which is wrong and _bad_.

( _Heh -- it aaaaaaall keeps going in circles_ , he thinks, wryly, the thought too subconscious to make him smirk even as he starts to feel the weight of corporeality - a heart fluttering in his and Alyssa’s shared chest, stabilizing as he assumes control.)

A good person feels fear - he guesses, ‘cause to them, the bad is as strange and complicated as it is simple to him.

...That’s why Alyssa is good.

She’s the opposite of him in all respects.

She’s afraid of him, because he’s bad.

It is _wrong_ for him to be doing this - staying, like this.

...He _still_ doesn’t know what that means.

Wearily, he thinks about the meaning of “should” again, only to fling it the fuck away.

Again.

(What does it mean, being a curse.)

...He’s grounded, now.

Feeling the lights in his eyes with the colors of the carpet stained yellow, the corpse-green of the head tumbled out of the suitcase.

Weary but defiantly, hotly resolute, as always.

(To be defiant is also bad.)

Now Alyssa doesn’t have to be afraid.

( _ **I’m your brother** , Alyssa._

_I’m a curse. I’m bad._

_I don’t understand._

_I don’t care._

**_Brother._ **

_That’s what I am._

_Pretty simple._ )

He's here to make sense of the bad.

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! 8,)c I got very curious seeing your _Clock Tower: Ghost Head_ prompts and had to check it out, as it's one of the games in the series I wasn't familiar with _at all_ , and _oh my god, Bates is so much I need in this life, A+ character who I adore_ , and so thank you _very_ much for including the game (and this shitty ghost in particular!!) in your requests!! >X,)C


End file.
